The Cisco Nexus Series switches are modular and fixed port network switches desi

gned for the data center. Cisco Systems introduced the Nexus Series of switches
on January 28, 2008. The first chassis in the Nexus 7000 family is a 10-slot cha
ssis with two supervisor engine slots and eight I/O module slots at the front, a
s well as five crossbar switch fabric modules at the rear. Beside the Nexus 7000
there are also other models in the Nexus range.
All switches in the Nexus range run the modular NX-OS firmware/operating system
on the fabric. NX-OS has some high-availability features compared to the well-kn
own Cisco IOS. This platform is optimized for high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Contents
1 The Nexus switching range
1.1 Nexus 1000v
1.2 Nexus 1010 / 1010x / 1100x
1.3 Nexus 2000 series
1.4 Nexus 3000 series
1.5 Nexus 4000 series
1.6 Nexus 5000 series
1.6.1 Nexus 5010
1.6.2 Nexus 5020
1.6.3 Nexus 5548
1.6.4 Nexus 5596
1.7 Nexus 6000 series
1.7.1 Nexus 6001
1.7.2 Nexus 6004 & 5696Q
1.8 Nexus 7000 series
1.8.1 Nexus 7004
1.8.2 Nexus 7009
1.8.3 Nexus 7010
1.8.4 Nexus 7018
1.8.5 Nexus 7710
1.8.6 Nexus 7718
1.9 Nexus 9000 series
1.9.1 Nexus 9396PX
1.9.2 Nexus 93128TX
1.9.3 Nexus 9504
1.9.4 Nexus 9508
1.9.5 Nexus 9516
2 End-of-Life Switches
3 Current Switches
4 References
The Nexus switching range
The Nexus 7000 is the high-end model in the Nexus range of datacenter switches.
Other models are:[1]
Nexus 1000v virtual switch
Nexus 2000 fabric extender
Nexus 3000 series
Nexus 4001 IBM Blade Center switch
Nexus 5000 series
Nexus 6000 series
Nexus 7000 series modular datacenter switches
Nexus 9000 series
Nexus 1000v
The 1000v is a virtual switch for use in virtual environments including both VMw
are vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V[2] It is as such not a physical box but a soft
ware application that interacts with the hypervisor so you can virtualize the ne
tworking environment and be able to configure your system as if all virtual serv
ers have connections to a physical switch and include the capabilities that a sw
itch offers such as multiple VLANs per virtual interface, layer-3 options, secur
ity features etc. Per infrastructure/cluster you have one VM running the Nexus 1
000v as virtual appliance, this is the VSM or Virtual Supervisor Module and then
on each node you would have a 'client' or Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) a vSwit
ch which replaces the standard vSwitch.
The VEM uses the vDS API, which was developed by VMware and Cisco together[3] Be
sides offering the NX-OS interface to configure, manage and monitor the virtual
switch it also supports LACP link aggregation where the standard virtual switche
s only support static LAGs[4]
The configuration of VEMs is done via the VSM NX-OS Command-line interface.
Nexus 1010 / 1010x / 1100x
The Virtual Supervisor Module or VSM would normally run as a virtual appliance i
n an ESX/ESXi cluster but it is possible to run the VSM on dedicated hardware: t
he Nexus 1010, 1010x and 1100. For organisations where there is a very strict bo
undary between network management and server management, network administrators
can avoid the dependency on the VSM running as virtual machine within the ESX cl
uster. The capabilities and limitations of a VSM running on a Nexus1010 are the
same as a VSM running as virtual applicance under ESX. A Nexus 1100 can host up
to 14 VSMs and it also allows additional services such as a Network Analysis Mod
ule to be run.
Nexus 2000 series
The Nexus 2000 series are fabric extenders (FEX): 'top of rack' 1U high system t
hat can be used in combination with higher end Nexus switches like the 5000, 600
0 or 7000 series: the 2000 series is not a 'stand-alone' switch but needs to be
connected to a parent and should be seen as a 'module' or 'remote line card' but
then installed in a 19" rack instead of in a main switch-enclosure. The interco
nnection between this 'remote line card' and the 5000 or 7000 parent switch uses
either proprietary interfaces (CX-1 for copper or the short or long range Cisco
Fabric Extender Tranceiver (FET) interfaces), or standard interfaces (Cisco SFP
+ SR and LR fibre interface modules or SFP+ Twinax cables). In combination with
the 5000/6000/7000 mother-switch you can create a so-called Distributed Modular
System.
The 2000 series consists of 4 different models. Three models offer 24 or 48 giga
bit only or gigabit/fastethernet copper interfaces and up to 4 10 Gigabit uplink
interfaces on copper or fibre. The Nexus 2232PP offers thirty-two 1/10 Gbit/s e
thernet and FCoE interfaces.[5] The Nexus 2248PQ offers forty-eight 1/10 Gigabit
ethernet and FCoE interfaces.
For the HP BladeSystem C3000 and C7000 server blade chassis, the Cisco Nexus B22
HP fabric extender exists. (October 2011)[6]
The Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX400 and BX900 blade server chassis uses the B22F fabric e
xtender. (July 2012)[7]
For the Dell M1000e blade server chassis, the Cisco Nexus B22Dell fabric extende
r was released in January 2013, which is 2.5 years after the initially planned r
elease. Due to a disagreement between Dell and Cisco, Cisco stopped development
of the FEX for the M1000e in 2010[8]
The Nexus B22FEX offer 16 x 10 Gbase-KR internal 10 Gb link to each blade-server
interface and up to 8 SFP+ ports for uplink with a Nexus 5010, 5548 or 5596 swi
tch. The maximum distance between the FEX and the mother-switch is 3 kilometer w
hen it is only used for TCP/IP traffic and 300 meter when carrying also FCoE tra
ffic.[9]
Nexus 3000 series
The model 3064 is currently the only Nexus switch in the 3000-series utilizing m
erchant silicon. The 1U rack-switch with 1, 10 and 40 Gb ethernet interfaces is
designed for use in colo center. Offers layer2 and layer3 capabilities at wire-s
peed for all 64 interfaces running in 10Gbit/s. Layer3 routing protocols support
ed include static routes, RIP v2, OSPF and BGP-4.The switch-fabric can switch 2,
28 Tbit/s and forward up to 950 million packets per second. The switch is capabl
e of building a route-table with up to 16000 prefixes, 8000 host-entries and 400
0 multicast routes and up to 4096 VLANs are supported. On top of that a high num
ber of ingress or egress ACLs can be configured.
The 3064 has a single fan tray, two replaceable power-supplies on board and two
separate out of band management interfaces. To connect the 3064 to the rest of t
he network the use of proprietary EtherChannel or Link aggregation using industr
y-standard LACP or IEEE 802.3ad is supported with up to 32 port-channels with ea
ch up to 16 physical interfaces.
The switch holds of 48 SFP+[10] for 1Gb or 10Gb ethernet interfaces and four QSF
P+[11] each handling 4 x 10Gb interfaces allowing for 40Gbit/s over a single fib
re-pair[12]
Nexus 4000 series
The Nexus 4000 series consists of only the model 4001: a blade-switch module for
IBM BladeCenter that has all 10 Gbit Fibre Channel over Ethernet or FCoE interf
aces. This blade-switch had 14 server-facing downlinks running on 1Gbit/s or 10
Gbit/s and six uplinks using 10Gbit/s SFP+ modules. For out-of-band management t
hree ethernet-interfaces are available: one external 10/100/1000 bit/s copper in
terface, one internal management interface for the AMM or Advanced Management Mo
dule and one in-band interface using the VLAN interface option. And this blade-s
witch also has a serial console cable for direct access to the CLI[13]
At present only switches for the IBM blade systems are available. When the Nexus
4000 series were announced in 2009 it was expected that there would be Nexus 40
01 series for IBM and Dell (and not HP)[14] but in February 2010 it became clear
that Cisco canceled the Nexus 4001d for the Dell M1000e[8]
For the HP blade system Cisco released a Fabric Extender, which compares with th
e Nexus 2000 top of rack devices, but then in a blade-form factor.[6] The FEX th
at was developed for the Dell blade system, which was due to be released in the
summer of 2010 was dropped at the same time as the Nexus 4001d in February of th
at year[8]
Nexus 5000 series
The Nexus 5000 series is a range of 5 models 1U or 2U rack-switches offering 20
to 96 interfaces running on 1 or 10Gb ethernet and 10 Gb FCoE interfaces. They c
an be used with the above-mentioned Nexus 2000 series fabric extender. The 5000-
series offer carrier-grade layer2 and layer3 switching as well as the mentioned
FCoE capabilities[15]
The Nexus 5000 has 5 models:
Nexus 5010
A one rack-unit high switch with 20 fixed 10Gbit/s supporting ethernet, FCoE
and DCB interfaces and one expansion port offering one of the following modules
:
8 ports with 1, 2 or 4 Gbps Fibre Channel
6 ports with 1, 2, 4 or 8 Gbps Fibre Channel
 4 ports with 10Gb FCoE or DCB and 4 ports offering 1, 2 or 4 Gbps Fibre
Channel
6 ports offering 10Gb FCoE or DCB
Nexus 5010 is End Of Life - http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral
/switches/nexus-5000-series-switches/eol_c51-709037.html
Nexus 5020
A two rack-unit high switch with 40 fixed 10Gbit/s supporting ethernet, FCoE and
DCB and two expansion ports each offering one of the modules
8 ports with 1, 2 or 4 Gbps Fibre Channel
6 ports with 1, 2, 4 or 8 Gbps Fibre Channel
4 ports with 10Gb FCoE or DCB and 4 ports offering 1, 2 or 4 Gbps Fi
bre Channel
6 ports offering 10Gb FCoE or DCB
Nexus 5020 is End of Life - http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral
/switches/nexus-5000-series-switches/eol_c51-709037.html
Nexus 5548
The 5548 comes in two sub-models: the 5548P and 5548UP
Nexus 5548P switch: 1U chassis with 32 fixed non-unified ports and up to 16
additional ports using the expansion slot. The 5548 chassis can be the main fabr
ic for the Nexus 2000 series fabric extenders. The interfaces in the expansion s
lots are:
16 port unified offering 1-10 Gbps SFP+ slot for ethernet and FCoE O
R 1,2,4 or 8 native fibre channel
16 port SFP+ 10Gbps ethernet and FCoE
8 ports SFP+ 10Gbps ethernet and FCoE plus 8 ports 1,2,4 or 8 native
fibre-channel.[16]
Nexus 5548UP: also a 1U chassis with 32 fixed unified ports and up to 16 add
itional ports using the expansion slot. The difference between the 5548P and 554
8UP is that the 5548Ps fixed (on-board) SFP+ slots are non-unified there where t
he same SFP+ slots on the UP chassis are unified.[16]
Nexus 5596
The 5596 comes in two sub-models the UP and the T:
Nexus 5596UP: a two-RU chassis with 48 fixed unified ports and up to 48 addi
tional interfaces in three expansion slots. Capabilities of the 5596UP is same a
s the 5548UP but this switch is two RU high and supports three expansion slots[1
6]
Nexus 5596T: a two-RU chassis with 48 fixed ports (32 of 10G Base-T + 16 SFP
+) and up to 48 additional interfaces in three expansion slots. 5596T supports t
he upcoming 10G Base-T ports on the fixed as well as expansion slots along with
supporting any other generic expansion modules that are supported on 5596UP.[16]
Next to the expansion modules all three Nexus 55xx switches offer the capability
to insert a 160Gbit/s layer-3 routing engine
Nexus 6000 series
The Cisco Nexus 6000 range contains two models, the 6001 model and the 6004 mode
l.[17] They can be used as layer2 and layer3 switches and can aggregate traffic
from the Fabric Extenders (FEX) for different blade-server systems. Both models
support either front to back or back to front airflow and they do support Fibre
Channel over Ethernet in combination with a 'full' FCoE switch (e.g. Nexus 5500
or Brocade 8000 switch (which is same as Dell PowerConnect 8000e or blade versio
n PCM 8428-k)).
Nexus 6001
The Nexus 6001 is a fixed 1 RU switch with 48 x 10Gb and 4 x 40Gb interfaces for
uplinks. It can operate as both layer2 and as layer3 switch and in combination
with FEX (fabric extenders) you can aggregate up to 1152 ports at 1Gb or 10Gb. S
ystem speed is wire-speed at layer2 and 1,28 Tbit/s for layer3 operation.
Nexus 6004 & 5696Q
The 2nd model in the Nexus 6000 series is a modular chassis, 4 Rack units high.
The basic chassis offers 48 fixed QSFP+ ports at 40 Gbit/s each, each can be spl
it in 4 x 10Gbit/s SFP+ ports. Besides the 48 QSFP+ ports the chassis can hold u
p to 4 expansion modules - each offering 12 additional 40Gbit/s QSFP+ ports - th
us in total up to 96 QSFP+ ports or 384 SFP+/10Gbit/s ports and when aggregating
FEX up to 1536 (blade)server ports at 1 or 10Gbit/s. As with the 6001 layer 2/l
ayer 3 operation is at line-rate and total switching capacity of a chassis is 7,
68Tbit/s. The Nexus 6004-EF switch is a modular device which provides the same f
eatures as the 6004 but with the use of expansion modules in all slots of the sw
itch. The base configuration of the 6004-EF must have 2 x 12 port 40GbE expansio
n modules, delivering 24 ports of 40GbE or 96 ports of 10GbE. Additional capacit
y can be provided by installing further expansion modules.
For layer3 and FCoE operation additional licences are required[18]
Cisco released the Nexus 6004X switch and renamed it to the Nexus 5696Q. Previou
sly, the Nexus 6000 series was meant to be focused on the Cisco 40G aggregation
products, and the 5500 and 5600 series on 10G. However, these switches mostly sh
ared common hardware components, ASICs, and the same software images, so recentl
y the Cisco decided to merge the product portfolios.
Nexus 7000 series
Although the Nexus 5000 had some modular capabilities and you can attach the Nex
us 2000 fabric extender to the 5500 range, the Nexus 7000 is the real modular sw
itch in the Nexus family with six versions: one 4 slot, one 9 slot, two 10 slot
and two 18 slot switches.[19] Unlike the other Nexus models, the 7000 series swi
tches are the modular switches for campus core and data center access, aggregati
on and core. Some details on the models are detailed below. As with the Nexus 50
00 series the Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders can act as a remote line card on the 7
000 series.
Nexus 7004
4 slots: 3-4 are line card slots, 1-2 are supervisor slots
7 RU height
Supports 96 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
1.92 Tbit/s system bandwidth
440 Gbit/s, 720Mpps per slot
Air flow is side to rear (input on right)
The chassis does not have fabric modules, the I/O modules connect directly t
hrough the backplane
Up to 4 power supplies.
Nexus 7009
9 slots: 3-9 are line card slots, 1-2 are supervisor slots
14 RU height
Supports 336 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
 8.8 Tbit/s system bandwidth
550 Gbit/s, 720Mpps per slot
Air flow is side to side (right to left)
Up to 5 Crossbar Fabric Modules
Up to 2 power supplies
Nexus 7010
10 slots: 1-4 and 7-10 are line card slots, 5-6 are supervisor slots
21 RU height
Supports 384 10Gbit/s, and/or 1Gbit/s ports, all non-blocking ports
550 Gbit/s, 720Mpps per slot
Air flow is front to back
Up to 5 Crossbar Fabric Modules
Up to 3 power supplies
Nexus 7018
18 slots: 1-8 and 11-18 are line card slots, 9-10 are supervisor slots
25 RU height
Supports 768 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
18.7 Tbit/s system bandwidth
550 Gbit/s, 720Mpps per slot
Air flow is side to side (right to left)
Up to 5 Crossbar Fabric Modules
Up to 4 power supplies
Nexus 7710
10 slots: 1-4 and 7-10 are line card slots, 5-6 are supervisor slots
14 RU height
Supports up to 384 10Gbit/s ports, or 192 40Gbit/s ports, or 96 100Gbit/s po
rts, all non-blocking ports
42 Tbit/s system bandwidth (21 Tbit/s full duplex)
1.32 Tbit/s per slot
Air flow is front to back
Up to 6 switch fabric modules
Up to 8 power supplies (3 kW each)
6 microsecond Latency
Nexus 7718
18 slots: 1-8 and 11-18 are line card slots, 9-10 are supervisor slots
26 RU height
Supports up to 768 10Gbit/s ports, or 384 40Gbit/s ports, or 192 100Gbit/s p
orts, all non-blocking ports
83 Tbit/s system bandwidth (42 Tbit/s full duplex)
1.32 Tbit/s per slot
Air flow is front to back
Up to 6 switch fabric modules
Up to 16 power supplies (3 kW each)
Nexus 9000 series
The Nexus 9000 series is a range of 5 models 2U to 21U rack-switches offering 60
to 2304 interfaces running on 1 or 10Gb ethernet, 10 Gb FCoE interfaces, 40 Gb
ethernet. They can be used with the above-mentioned Nexus 2000 series fabric ext
ender.
The Nexus 9000 has 5 models:
Nexus 9396PX
A two rack-unit high switch with 48 SFP+ 10Gbit/s supporting ethernet, FCoE
and DCB interfaces and one expansion port offering the modules
12 ports with 40Gb supporting ethernet, FCoE or DCB
Nexus 93128TX
A three rack-unit high switch with 96 fixed 1/10Gbit/s supporting ethernet,
FCoE and DCB interfaces and one expansion port offering the modules
8 ports with 40Gb supporting ethernet, FCoE or DCB
Nexus 9504
4 line card slots
7 RU height
Supports 576 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
15 Tbit/s system bandwidth
Nexus 9508
8 line card slots
13 RU height
Supports 1152 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
30 Tbit/s system bandwidth
Nexus 9516
16 line card slots
21 RU height
Supports 2304 10Gbit/s and/or 1Gbit/s, all non-blocking ports
60 Tbit/s system bandwidth